Palo Alto: Mitchell Park Library to open on Dec. 6

Residents of Palo Alto waiting to get a peek inside the new Mitchell Park Library and Community Center can finally book a date.

A grand opening for the roughly $28 million facility has been slated for Dec. 6, the city announced Tuesday.

"We are all excited for this beautiful new space to open," Library Director Monique le Conge Ziesenhenne said in a statement. "It is gorgeous and our staff is working extra hard to get it ready for the public. We are turning the page and entering a new chapter in the life of the library."

To help with the move, cardholders will be allowed to check out as many as 100 books from the temporary Mitchell Park Library, which will close ahead of the grand opening on Sept. 26.

The centerpiece of a $76 million bond measure, the 56,000-square-foot library and community center was supposed to open in the summer of 2012.

The general contractor and the city have pinned the blame for the lengthy delay on one another. Flintco Pacific Inc. says the city misrepresented the accuracy and completeness of plans and specifications for the project. Flintco missed numerous deadlines and did shoddy work, according to the city.

The city fired Flintco in January and Big-D Pacific Builders was brought in to finish the job.

Flintco and the city are now digging in for what could be a long legal battle. Flintco filed a lawsuit in July alleging that the city improperly denied its public records requests for documents related to the project. The general contractor also submitted a claim that the city owes it millions of dollars.